District considers school bus cameras after alleged assault

JOHNSTON, Iowa — A school district here may install video cameras in all of its school buses in response to a recent incident in which a driver was charged with assaulting a special-needs student, The Des Moines Register reports.

Johnston Community School District already has cameras on two of its 75 buses, according to the newspaper. It would cost more than $150,000 to install cameras on the rest of the buses, with each camera costing about $2,000, Laura Sprague, a spokeswoman for the district, told The Des Moines Register. The district had already ordered eight cameras before the alleged assault took place.

The district had previously equipped more of its buses with cameras, but as the quality of the analog video declined and the machines stopped working, they were not replaced, the newspaper reports.

Meanwhile, the district is also looking into privatizing its transportation system. Sprague told The Des Moines Register that the district is weighing the cost and implementation of cameras on its own buses if it is going to move to contractor service for the 2016-17 school year, and if it does, it would request that the buses be equipped with cameras.

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